Connie Francis

Jamaican international who captained the Sunshine Girls and later coached Jamaica to major international medals.

Connie Francis was born in Jamaica around 1968 — one of 16 siblings raised in the Waterhouse district of Kingston — and represented the Sunshine Girls as a goal attack and goal shooter from 1985 to 2003, playing across five World Netball Championships and captaining the side at the 1995 and 1999 tournaments. She was part of the Jamaican teams that won bronze medals at the 1991 World Championship in Sydney and the 2003 tournament on home soil in Kingston, as well as bronze at the 1993 World Games. Francis moved into coaching soon after retiring as a player, taking charge of the Sunshine Girls for the first time in 2007 and immediately guiding them to World Cup bronze in Auckland. After spells coaching Saint Lucia and Jamaica's Fast5 team, she returned for a longer second spell as Jamaica head coach from 2019, initially inheriting a team that had just finished a disappointing fifth at the 2019 World Cup in Liverpool. Under Francis the Sunshine Girls transformed into one of the sport's most competitive nations: at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games they won a historic silver medal, Jamaica's best-ever finish at the Games, and at the 2023 World Cup in Cape Town she led the team to bronze, ending a 16-year wait for a global medal. The Gleaner described her as "the most successful coach of the national senior team" in Jamaica's history. Her contract as Jamaica head coach ended in September 2023, and in November 2024 she made history again as the first Jamaican ever appointed head coach in England's Netball Super League, taking charge of newly formed Birmingham Panthers.

• World Championship bronze 1991, 2003 (player)
• World Games bronze 1993 (player)
• Sunshine Girls captain 1995, 1999 (player)
• World Cup bronze 2007, 2023 (head coach)
• Commonwealth Games silver 2022 (head coach) — Jamaica's best-ever finish
• First Jamaican head coach in England's Netball Super League (Birmingham Panthers, 2024)